Guide·rules, controls, economy

How to play Lanefall TD

Lanefall TD is line tower wars for 2 to 10 players. You defend your lane with towers and attack every other lane by sending units. This page covers the rules first, then the numbers.

Fig. 1 · one lane, top section · 9 × 31 cellsLive render

01Your lane

Every lane is the same grid, 9 cells wide and 31 deep. Units enter at the spawn platform at the top and walk to the exit platform at the bottom. You own everything in between.

A
Spawn platformRival sends appear here. You can't build on it.
B
Your mazeOne tower per cell. Walls of towers force units to walk further while every tower in range fires.
C
Planned pathThe dotted line is the route units will take. The game refuses any placement that would close it.
D
Kill zonePut your expensive towers where the path doubles back, so they fire on the same unit twice.
E
Exit platformAt the bottom of the lane. Every unit that reaches it costs you 1–6 lives. You start with 40.

Units never block R-03

They pass through each other and all follow the shortest open route.

25 s grace R-05

No one can send for the first 25 seconds. Use them to build.

02Building

You build from three cheap starts. Every basic climbs to level 3, and a level-3 basic can branch into any specialist line. There is no research to buy: gold is the only gate. Selling a tower refunds 70% of what you paid.

Melee basic · crush

Slasher7g

Slasher II30g

Slasher III120g

Ranged basic · pierce

Gun Turret10g

Gun Turret II40g

Gun Turret III150g

Autocannon600g

Maze block · no attack

DepotFree

Depots are free, non-attacking maze blocks, up to 15 per lane. Upgrade one into a Slasher or Gun Turret when you can afford it. The Sapper mine line branches from Slasher III only; every other line branches from either basic.

03Sending units

Sending is how you attack and how you get richer. Units spawn in the lane you target, and your income goes up the moment they leave, even if they die on the first tower. Barracks I is open from the start. Each next barracks costs gold once and needs the one before it.

Barracks	Opens	Units	Roster	Upgrades
Barracks I	Free	7	Scud, Trooper, Decoy, Shellback, Raider, Herald, Swarm	Plating 500g, Plating II 1,500g, Drill 500g, Drill II 1,500g
Barracks II	1,000g	8	Bulwark, Martyr, Divider, Jammer, Wraith, Echo, Overseer, Reviver	Alloy 2,500g, Alloy II 7,500g, Overshield 2,500g, Overshield II 7,500g
Barracks III	5,000g	7	Shroud, Broodmother, Burrower, Revenant, Dampener, Aegis, Colossus	Feral 6,000g, Feral II 18,000g, Stride 6,000g, Stride II 18,000g
Barracks IV	12,000g	6	Harrier, Bastion, Swarmlord, Overcharger, Nullifier, Matriarch	Ascendance 12,000g, Ascendance II 36,000g, Resonance 12,000g

Some units bring extras: Swarm releases 6 bodies, Divider splits into 2 Splinters, Broodmother hatches a Hatchling every 2.5 seconds, and Matriarch splits into 2 Scions after rising once. A multi-body send splits its leak cost across the bodies, and one purchase can never take more than 8 lives.

04Combo sends

The combo strip in the barracks plans a group of up to four unit stacks, each up to ×99, and fires the whole plan with one press. The group spawns tightly packed, so support units arrive with the units they protect.

Build the plan C-01

Drag a unit card's grip into a slot. Tapping the card itself still sends that unit at once. Tap a filled slot to add one, hold it to ramp the count.

Fire the plan C-02

The plan reads left to right and sends as much as your gold covers, stopping at the first slot you can't afford. Hold to fire it again. It is saved between matches.

05Rules

The path stays open R-01

A route from spawn to exit must always exist. Placements that would trap units are refused.

One tower per cell R-02

Towers never overlap, and the spawn and exit platforms can't be built on.

Leaks cost lives R-04

A leak costs 1 to 6 lives by the unit's cost. When a lane is out of lives, its leaks carry on into the next lane.

Sudden death at 25:00 R-06

Long matches don't stall. At 25:00 sudden death starts and keeps raising pressure until a lane falls.

Solo speed R-07

Solo games against bots can run at 1x, 2x or 4x. Multiplayer always runs at 1x, stepped by the server.

Ranked R-08

A match counts for rank only when every seat is a human player.

06Economy

Income pays out as gold every 10 seconds, and a lobby can vote for 15. Killing a unit pays its bounty to the tower's owner, but that is a trickle. Most of your money comes from sending.

income += cost × 0.06–0.11Every unit you send. The rate rises with cost, so one 1,050g Wraith adds about 87 income, more than 37 Troopers at 28g (about 66). Bounty is about 5.5% of the unit's cost.

Act 1 · 0:00 E-01

Income is capped by a softcap that starts at 320 gold.

Act 2 · 6:00 E-02

The softcap starts rising by 80 gold a minute.

Act 3 · 12:00 E-03

Payout overdrive: income pays out twice as often.

07Controls

Everything works by touch or mouse: tap a cell to build, tap a tower to upgrade or sell, and open the barracks from the bottom bar. On a keyboard, the keys follow the grid.

Build	Key
Open the build menu on the hovered tile	`B`
Build or upgrade in the menu	`QWE`
Branch a level-3 tower into a line	`Q`–`O`
Sell the tower	`X`
Close any open menu	`Esc`

Send and view	Key
Open barracks I–IV	`1`–`4`
Send units in cost order	`Q`–`P` `A`–`L` `Z`–`M`
Fire your combo plan (hold to repeat)	`5`
Cycle rival lanes (view only)	`Tab←→`
Back to your lane	`Space`
Scroll the lane, jump to top or bottom	`↑↓` `HomeEnd`

08Tower counters

Place towers by what they do, not by how they look. Each specialist line answers one kind of send.

Line	Towers	Opens	Answers
Reach	Beam → Beam Prime → Ascendant	1,500g	Fast light units. Longest range in the game. Ascendant adds an area slow.
Burn	Flameguard → Firestorm → Infernal Flame	1,500g	Swarms. Burn damage stops regeneration. Infernal Flame fires five spores a volley.
Siege	Siege Mortar → Siege Breaker → Siege Sunderer	1,500g	Support waves. Splash shells that strip heals, hastes and wards.
Artillery	Pounder → Pulverizer → Devastator → Hydra	1,500g	Huge health. Executes wounded targets. Hydra charges 8 s for a double strike.
Tar	Tar Pit → Tar Basin → Tar Vortex	1,500g	Speed spam. No damage. Slows units to 65%, 50% and then 35% speed.
Sapper	Sapper → Sapper Prime → Master Sapper	500g	Hidden units. Mines nearby path cells. Mines also hit units towers cannot see.